The AFC Championship Game is still five days away; why are we already so nervous? It’s time to Get More Smarter with Colorado Pols. If you think we missed something important, please include the link in the comments below (here’s a good example).
► The Iowa caucuses are just two weeks away, and as Politico reports, it looks like a two-man race between Donald Trump and Ted Cruz, with Florida Sen. Marco Rubio a very distant third.
► In the last seven days, three separate Colorado Republicans have declared their intent to seek the 2016 U.S. Senate nomination. If you’re counting at home (good luck with that, BTW), Jerry Natividad is somewhere between the 9th and 12th GOP candidate to enter the race thus far. As much as it pains us to say this, Bob Beauprez has got to be lurking around the corner somewhere.
Meanwhile, the frontrunner for the GOP nomination for U.S. Senate — state Sen. Tim Neville — was in Grand Junction over the weekend to make it clear that nobody will be outflanking him on the right.
Get even more smarter after the jump…
► Colorado House Republicans are doing everything they can to “shield” Rep. Jon Keyser from having to cast any difficult votes one week before the U.S. Senate candidate formally resigns from the legislature. From Elena Schneider of Politico (full article behind a paywall):
State Rep. Jon Keyser, a 34-year-old combat veteran, is planning to resign his legislative seat this week to focus on his just-launched Senate campaign. Before he leaves, though, Democratic legislators are trying to force Keyser to vote on “personhood,” a controversial and recurring proposal in Colorado that would essentially outlaw abortion and some forms of contraception by defining “person” and “child” to include embryos and fetuses in state law…
…But unlike Gardner, Keyser faces a packed GOP primary, where hard-line conservatives are just as interested as Democrats in using abortion as a purity test before the race to take on Democratic Sen. Michael Bennet.
“I think Republican voters will want to know where Keyser is on this issue,” said state Rep. Justin Everett, a conservative legislator who is backing one of Keyser’s Senate rivals: state Sen. Tim Neville, a tea party favorite. “A candidate that’s going to be successful has to be able to shore up the conservative base, and I’m not sure Keyser can do that.”
So far, Republican leaders have helped Keyser evade the legislative trap, swiftly moving him off one of his committee assignments last week before a vote on a personhood-like bill that would give fetuses some of the same legal protections as children and adults.
► Denver’s Archbishop says that candidates who support Planned Parenthood should be “shunned.” So much for that “war on women” theory being a liberal creation.
► In case you haven’t heard, the Republican establishment really, really, really hates Texas Sen. Ted Cruz.
► If you needed another reason to root for the Denver Broncos (or against the New England Patriots) on Sunday, consider this: New England quarterback Tom Brady is a YUGE fan of Republican Presidential frontrunner Donald Trump.
► More than 100 bills were introduced in the first couple of days of the 2016 state legislative session.
► A Pols reader chimes in with an informed opinion on the “Disneyfication” of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
► A group pushing for a change in Colorado law that would allow full-strength liquor, beer, and wine to be sold in grocery stores is making a significant strategic adjustment. “Your Choice Colorado” is removing hard alcohol from their proposed language, which means supermarkets could only sell full-strength beer and wine if voters approve in November.
And for those of you who are just now finding out that Colorado grocery stores only sell beer with a very low alcohol content…sorry.
► If you are like most of us, understanding how the state budget works is like trying to build a rocket out of popsicle sticks. Here’s a great graphic from the Colorado Springs Gazette that you should bookmark for future budget arguments. You can read more about the Hospital Provider Fee, a big piece of the 2016 legislative discussion, by clicking here.
► Bernie Sanders does not own a tuxedo. Welcome to the club, Bernie!
► Colorado Governor John Hickenlooper got married over the weekend.
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Unwise it is to watch Sarah Palin endorse Donald Trump during dinner. I think that she said that Washington legislators are all "addicted to opium" because they make budgets and pay for stuff.
You just know Trump is standing there thinking, "What a bimbo." He won't respect Sarah Palin more than he respects any other woman, but he's happy to use her endorsement.
She also claims to be for "strict constitutionality". While we're on that topic, help me out, Polsters. Which amendment guarantees that immigrants and refugees also have certain American rights? Like a jury trial, etc. I could look it up, but I'm tired. But I think that people who claim to want to deport immigrants or lock them up without a trial, etc, are actually going against the Constitution that they claim to revere so much.
And another thing. Watching Trump suck it up letting a woman talk while he's silent, I predict that a) he will be the Republican nominee (duh), and b) that his veep nominee will be female. It's the only way he gains back some ground with the womenfolk, who are not Trump fans.
You need to get cable …
(… yeah, it mostly sucks, and it's way overpriced in terms of value, but there's almost never anytime you couldn't find something better than Palin and/or Trump …)
I've got cable. I even watch MSNBC. Trump still takes up the majority of the talking heads airtime on the so-called liberal media. I just don't watch reality TV on cable, because why bother? I'm a political gal, and politics has been taken over by reality TV.
Case in point: MSNBC is now piloting a new reality TV show called "The Circus" which will feature a reality TV show star (Trump), who was just endorsed by a failed governor, failed VP candidate, and failed reality TV star (Palin) .
So the main TV star (Trump) is competing against his chief opponent, who just posed in black makeup with another reality TV star ( the Duck dynasty guy).
Cruz and Clinton aren't likeable enough to make it on reality TV – that's why they're failing. Bernie is likeable enough, and would be a hit as the salty old curmudgeon straight-shooter…except that is who he is, not his reality TV role.
But you're right. Time to turn it off.
Given our general knowledge of the character of the two parties involved, I will not be at all surprised when we soon find out that:
1. This was a paid endorsement, and
2. Trump personally wrote the scripted comments of Palin's endorsement (which she was unable to properly read aloud).
Layoffs just before year end being especially cruel, having the tendency to ruin that "Christmas" thing we are so obsessive about, now get pushed to the new year as everyone looks forward in optimism:
Outsourcing, baby, where the Corporate Exec looks like a genius for saving money. I look forward to my looming, though not yet decided, layoff date from a computer giant whose better days have long been mortgaged by those same genius executives.
Does anyone know who Peyton Manning supports or what his politics are?
He's an R and supported Jeb? this cycle.
He's also a Christian, but not an in-your-face Christian.
Off the top of my head, most recently he’s been supporting the Bowlens, the Elways, a team full of mostly overpaid pituitary freaks, and the usual odd assortment of hangers-on …
… not sure about his politics, but I'm guessing it's $$$$?!?
Well Elway and the Bowlens are big time Republicans, too.
I wonder why No. 7 isn't running for the US Senate. Remember the perennial rumors that he was going to run for Guv?
He is on a mission…it starts with "S" and rhymes with Super Bowl….
Yeah, but what better time and place to do you campaign kickoff announce than right after the Superbowl……